Connected Capability Fund (CCF) Research Commercialisation Manager

Research & Enterprise Services Salary: £46,974 to £54,395 Closing Date: Tuesday 21 November 2023 Interview Date: Monday 04 December 2023 Reference: 1316-23

Lancaster has recently been awarded £1.2M from Research England's Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) to work with partner universities across the North West to capture the very latest cyber security innovations and partner with entrepreneurs, investors, government and businesses to transform cutting-edge knowledge into innovative new products, services and policy, to better protect consumers, businesses and UK infrastructure.

The North West Cyber Security Connect for Commercialisation (NW CyberCom) project will involve the universities of Lancaster, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Central Lancashire. It will also be supported by Plexal, a Manchester-based innovation company helping businesses, startups and industry to collaborate with government to help deliver national security and prosperity; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and lead consultancy, CRSI.

NW CyberCom will draw on established partnerships with the National Cyber Force and GCHQ to develop an innovation ecosystem across the North West Cyber Corridor and provide bespoke training for university researchers focused on maximising commercialisation opportunities. The ecosystem will act as a platform for sustained cyber focused research commercialisation, bringing together industry, innovation, universities and investment to accelerate growth. It will ensure the North West becomes the “go to” place for companies looking for investment, investors looking to enhance their deal flow and businesses who need access to the latest technology and thinking in the cyber space through an ongoing pipeline of intellectual property emerging from academic research.

It follows Lancaster University's recent once-in-a-generation £19M investment into Security and Protection Science – an initiative that will also see Lancaster recruit 33 new cross-disciplinary academics, plus 15 professor in practice roles as well as 10 support staff. It also comes after Lancaster's move to set up a new Digital Security Hub in Manchester with a consortium of leading cyber security specialists last year, to help foster innovation and growth in the region and wider UK's digital and cyber security sectors.

To ensure successful delivery of the project, we are recruiting three roles encompassing all elements of project delivery, partnership development and research commercialisation pathway identification. These are:

Role holders will be expected to build relationships right across the NW CyberCom partnership. There is real scope to create new and innovative mechanisms to support research commercialisation, knowledge exchange collaborations and impact pathways aligned to cyber security and broader security and protection sciences.

Interested candidates should contact Dr Mark Rushforth, Associate Director of Enterprise and Innovation ([email protected]), for any questions or informal discussions regarding these roles. These roles are fixed term in the first instance until 30th November 2025.

We warmly welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of their age, religion, gender identity or expression, race, disability or sexual orientation, and are committed to promoting diversity, and equality of opportunity. As a truly global and inclusive university, it is no surprise that Lancaster University is committed to creating an environment where everyone can thrive and fulfil their potential. Students from over one hundred countries make up our diverse campus and over half of our staff come from outside of the UK. Lancaster is an open and welcoming community that values equality and diversity. Our promotion of global values ensures Lancaster is a welcoming environment for all students and staff.

We are proactive in engagement with our staff to help us to understand the lived experiences of our university community and to understand how we are doing in creating a fairer and more inclusive University. Our multi-faith Chaplaincy Centre is a welcoming place for people of all faiths and none. It includes facilities for the Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam and Jewish faiths and also a Muslim Prayer Room.

We welcome applications from people in all diversity groups.

We will also encourage flexible and elements of remote working given the nature of the roles, learning from our experience during the pandemic in ensuring the role holder is well supported in doing so. We do expect there to be travel across the North West in building relationships and undertaking project activity with all NW CyberCom partners.

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